Luke Carter had been nagged about it all morning, his head was spinning: "Instead of sitting here, why don't you go out and do some business during lunch break?"

Wanda: "Haozi, that's actually a good suggestion."

In the end, the whereabouts of the two big shots in the class remained a mystery, but Wanda managed to dig up an unexpected piece of news.

Wanda was well-connected and knew plenty of people in every class. When he dropped by Class 7, someone happened to be coming back from the office with a stack of homework. He patted Wanda on the shoulder and casually said, "Do you guys know what your class's average score is this time?"

Wanda turned back, clutching the window: "Huh? Our class average?"

"Yeah. It's insane, I even wondered if I was seeing things."

That person hadn't seen the exact scores, just caught a glimpse of the average scores for each class listed on the teacher's computer screen, and was still in shock: "It's more than four points higher than the grade average."

Wanda: "You must be seeing things."

After triple-checking the accuracy of this intel, Wanda floated back to the classroom, his mind filled with just a few lines: I must have done really well this time!

No! Our Class 3 students must have all done really well this time!

Defying fate!

"He was seeing things."

However, when Wanda returned to the classroom, what greeted him were terrible scores in every subject. The subject reps had already handed out the test papers, and Luke Carter looked grim as he slapped the few of Wanda's papers that weren't hovering on the edge of passing in front of him: "He was definitely seeing things. Look for yourself, with these scores, four points higher? Dream on."

Wanda refused to give up, falling into deep thought over his terrible grades: "What about the rest of our class?"

Luke Carter flashed his own test paper: "Not much better."

Logan Wright: "Evenly matched, equally bad."

""

"It's true," Quinn Shaw had just finished handing out all the English test papers. Hearing them talk about the class average, she hesitated for a moment, then finally said, "Really, 4.6, I saw it too."

Even when the bell rang for class, no one in Class 3 could figure out where that extra "4.6" points had come from.

And no one noticed that there were still two students' test papers being held back.

Logan Wright whimsically decided to believe in the supernatural: "Could it be that my lucky repost really worked?"

"Can we try a more reliable line of thinking?" Luke Carter said, immediately coming up with a new idea, "Maybe we should consider just how badly the other classes did this time?"

Wanda was scratching his head, desperate to know the whereabouts of the two missing people, who at that moment were in an empty classroom retaking the test.

Ethan Young wasn't surprised at all by this arrangement. Anyone would find it hard to believe that the two students at the bottom of the grade could suddenly leap to first and second place, with total scores in every subject leaving an unbridgeable gap between them and the rest of the students from all four schools.

When the retest was announced, Ethan Young didn't react much, just said, "Teacher, I have a question."

Old Thompson thought they were overthinking it, that their young hearts had been hurt, and quickly explained, "It's not that we don't trust you, it's just—"

"The test time is too long."

"Huh?"

Ethan Young said, "It won't take that long, half an hour is enough."

""

Henry Howard had no objections to the retest; the only thing he cared about was: "Why did I only get 148 in math?"

Hearing this, William Warren silently gripped the bottle of quick-acting heart pills in his hand.

"The two points were deducted for the paper's appearance."

William Warren paused before saying, "You brat, you complained about the question setter's standards on the test paper, and you still want a 150?"

------------

101. Chapter 101

As class time approached, the noisy hallway gradually quieted down.

William Warren sat at the edge of the podium, staring unblinkingly at the two special "test-takers" in the front row.

There were only three people in the whole classroom, making it look empty. One of them finished the test, tossed his pen aside, and lay down on the desk to sleep. From William Warren's angle, he could only see the back of his head.

The other had nothing to do, so he was doodling on scratch paper with his pen.

Before Ethan Young lay down, he had only one thought in his mind: half an hour is still a bit long.

He had just closed his eyes when he vaguely felt a strong gaze. Feeling uncomfortable being stared at, Ethan Young opened his eyes again, meeting his boyfriend's unabashedly scrutinizing look: ""

"What are you two doing? If you're done, just hand it in."

William Warren glanced at his watch as he spoke. For this math test, the two of them had taken just over twenty minutes at most. He knew these two desk mates were close, and now they were even exchanging glances right in front of him.

William Warren didn't even know what to say to them anymore. He'd already been shocked enough these past two days and really couldn't take any more: "Hand it in, hand it in, hand it in, and hurry back to class."

Actually, William Warren had never once suspected "cheating." Compared to "cheating," he was more inclined to think that maybe these two had been struck by lightning and scrambled their brains while out for a walk during winter break.

Because with their scores, "cheating" just didn't make sense.

With Henry Howard's creative answering style, what kind of cheater would go out of their way to make things harder for themselves? Where would you even find answers like that?

"Wait a second."

Ethan Young had just taken a couple of steps when he heard William Warren call them from behind.

William Warren cleared his throat and asked, "Did you guys organize any activities during winter break?"

Henry Howard didn't know what he meant, but still answered, "Yeah, we sang karaoke?"

William Warren really wanted to ask how the weather was that day, whether there was thunder, and most importantly, whether the lightning struck the two of them on the head. He held back, swallowing all those random questions, and just waved his hand: "Alright, go on, hurry up."

Chinese, math, English, plus a science comprehensive test, took up the whole morning.

They said the questions were new, but there were only ten big questions on each test, and none of them were ordinary. The difficulty was almost on par with key schools.

When Ethan Young handed in his paper and left, the questions from each subject were still swirling in his mind.

He was still thinking about it when someone suddenly shoved a piece of paper into his hand: "What's this?"

Out in the hallway, the midday sun was hot. Henry Howard unzipped his jacket and said, "A masterpiece from yours truly, for you."

Ethan Young unfolded the scratch paper in his hand. On the back, besides some messy formulas and calculations, there was an abstract stick-figure drawing.

The lines were chaotic, but you could vaguely tell it was a human figure. If he hadn't remembered how this guy kept staring at him during the retest, he wouldn't have been able to tell who it was supposed to be.

Some masterpiece.

Henry Howard was pretty confident in his drawing skills: "Surprised?"

"Surprised," Ethan Young slowly folded up the scratch paper and beckoned him over, "Come here for a second."

Henry Howard leaned in, about to say 'I'm not asking for much, just a kiss on the cheek,' when he was immediately hit a few times and almost kicked down the stairs by Ethan Young.

William Warren listened to the sounds of roughhousing in the hallway, shook his head, and turned his attention back to the retest papers in front of him.

In the joint exam of four schools, No. 2 High produced two top scorers.

After confirming the scores were correct, this explosive news quickly spread through the grade, and soon it wasn't just the second-year group talking about it—it spread throughout the whole school.

The scores were ridiculously high. Every subject was either a perfect score or close to it, and the gap between them and the third place in the grade was in the triple digits.

The students in Class 3 were completely unaware, still immersed in the idea that "the other classes must have done terribly this time."

The first class in the afternoon was Old Thompson's.

The scores had mostly been tallied, and knowing the kids were eager to find out how they did, Thomas Thompson not only brought the new lesson but also the grade sheet, planning to analyze the results with them and help them set goals and plans for the rest of the semester.

"Our class average this time is 4.6 points higher than the others—"

Henry Howard was chased by Ethan Young to the classroom door, just in time to hear the cheers from Class 3, loud enough to almost blow the roof off: "What are they going crazy about?"

Ethan Young raised his hand to block his ears, noncommittal.

Wanda was the first to jump up and shout, "It's true!"

Luke Carter's eyes were red. He was a grown man, but he could cry at the drop of a hat: "We actually did it!"

Logan Wright: "It's a miracle! We created a miracle!"

""

Old Thompson didn't really get why they were so moved: "Hold on, I haven't finished—"